Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Doomsday Book Connie Willis 7.99  1992 Rating: A

Doomsday Book is my favorite Connie Willis novel, and one of my most favorite novels, period.   I've read it at least four times, and it's become sort of a semi-annual Christmas read for me.  While I wouldn't under any circumstances call this book sweet or heart-warming, it is extremely touching and inspirational and illuminates an aspect of the Christmas story like no other book I've ever read.

Kivrin Engle is a student of medieval history at Oxford University of 2054.  Time travel has long since been accomplished, under certain specially control circumstances, and Kivrin has been studying, both practically and factually, everything she would need to know if she would have lived in the fourteenth century in order to do practical experience in the actual 1320.  The time has finally come for her to be dropped there, via the net, to study the contemps in their natural setting and report back so that Medieval can begin to learn if everything they "know" about the Middle Ages is  in fact true.  

Mr. Dunworthy, Kivrin's unofficial history tutor, is less sanguine about Kivrin's adventure.  Dunworthy believes that Medieval is rushing this drop, pushing the date  forward while the head of the history faculty is away so that they don't have to follow the usual university rules and precautions.  He is not reassured by all of Kivrin's practical experience or by the fact that she's been immunized against all major contagious diseases extant in 1320.  The Middle Ages were a dangerous time, a time of cutthroats and witch-burners, and certainly no place for a young woman alone.  Unfortunately for Dunworthy, and ultimately for Kivrin, his opinions go unheeded.  And on the day of the drop Badri, the tech running the net, becomes suddenly very ill and collapses.  But not before he announces that "There's something wrong."

Badri's illness is the beginning of an influenza epidemic in Oxford during which Dunworthy more and more frantically tries - and repeatedly fails - to find out what that "something wrong" is.  Meanwhile, a very sick Kivrin tries to survive in a time not known for its gentle treatment of strangers or women.

Doomsday Book was published in 1992, and so it would be harder to avoid, rather than discover, key spoilers about the book's plot.  If you would like to know the biggest one, highlight here: the book is about the Black Death and its Christmastime arrival in Oxford.

Even without spoilers, however, it becomes clear as the book progresses that both Kivrin and Dunworthy are in danger.  Willis drops hints throughout as to the nature of Badri's illness and Kivrin's temporal destination.  About two-thirds of the way through Doomsday Book, everything finally clicks together, but the plot is far from over or resolved and the suspense continues unabated until the very end, without Willis resorting to a single suspense cliché.  

As an author, Connie Willis is usually stronger at plotting than she is at character development.  Many of her books are mined with clues that eventually trip a satisfying "Aha!" moment for the reader, but none of them have moved me to sobbing like Doomsday Book.  Both Kivrin and Dunworthy are fully fleshed as characters, admirable enough for the reader to keep fingers crossed, flawed enough to sympathize with.  The supporting characters are strong as well.  Two of the contemps Kivrin meets, a strong-willed little girl, and a mild-mannered village priest, especially stand out.  Willis wrote against formula when she created both of them.  

Doomsday Book is also linguistically interesting.  To help her communication with the people of 1320, Kivrin studied Latin, Middle English, Middle German and French.  Medieval also equipped her with a translator.  But when she first arrives, the translator doesn't work and she is stymied by the language the people are using.  I suspect the majority of readers may skim over these passages, but personally I love this section of the book.  I love trying to figure out what the contemps are saying along with Kivrin.   Willis also peppers her text with Church Latin, sometimes playing on the words to reinforce imagery or theme.  And there are many themes to reinforce.  

Ultimately Doomsday Book is a story of parent and child and how parents have to watch and worry as children make their way in a dangerous, unforgiving world.  Dunworthy is the father here, he cares for Kivrin as if she were his daughter.  And Kivrin keeps Dunworthy in her thoughts as she struggles against illness and danger, feeling alternately grateful and homesick, wanting to share with him what she is learning.  Other characters reinforce this theme as well, but Willis overlays the Christmas story on top of Dunworthy and Kivrin and attempts to illuminate the mixed feelings of God the Father towards His son's arrival on earth.  Seldom do Christians think about what God was doing or feeling when Jesus was born.  It is interesting to see Him and the story from a different perspective.  

To add to the Christmas feel, Willis includes Christmas liturgy of past and future, hymns, copious amounts of Church Latin, and repeat mentions of how cold it was in December 1320.  Kivrin experiences all of the Christmas festivities, church and secular, in inadequate clothing, feeling tired, weak, helpless and at the mercy of strangers, much as the Holy Family must have long ago.  But the theological symbolism here isn't merely sentimental.  Both Kivrin and Dunworthy repeatedly struggle to understand how disasters like the Black Death happened in the sight God.   Kivrin knows that what is happening is objective, a natural occurrence, a disease, but it feels like a judgment, a punishment all the same.  Doomsday Book offers no pat answers on the nature or meaning of suffering or death, only many questions for the reader to examine.  The book's ending, however, is truly touching.   Spoilers (highlight): After suffering through the Black Death's devastation in the village, Kivrin is left bitter, drained, suffering and sorrowing, yet  it is clear she has made a real difference in the fate of a number of people.  So was the drop mistake a "mistake" or was she meant to be there to make that difference amidst all of the suffering? 

Another theme Willis explores is the unchanging nature of man.  People in the 2054 epidemic act much as their predecessors did: the urge to run, escape, panic, cast blame, refuse or shirk responsibility, or fall into religious fanaticism seems universal, despite the advances of science and reason gained through the centuries.  Yet a few individuals remain steadfast and self-sacrificing no matter how difficult things get.  As per usual, Willis also rips on bureaucracy and group-think, and all of her "villains" are only concerned with their own agendas.  

Of the two stories, past and future, the 2054 story is less interesting and more repetitive than the medieval one.  The first time I read the book, the repetition didn't register so much as I was trying to figure out, with the characters, just what was going on.  Upon a re-read it's more noticeable.  Important information for the reader is embedded within, but much of what goes on begins to feel redundant.  

One thing that stands out for the reader of today is the lack of cell phones.  Many of the problems Dunworthy has could probably be sorted out online, by beeper, or cell phone, but of course the book was published in 1992 and these things were not ubiquitous like they are today.

After reading Doomsday Book, it's always hard for me to read more straightforward fiction, the kind without symbolism and subtext.  This book is just so rich and so interesting.  It has so many informational tidbits and packs such an emotional wallop that nothing else seems right for awhile.  But that's a small price to pay for the privilege of reading a wonderful story such as this.  If you haven't read Doomsday Book yet, I recommend it fully and whole-heartedly.  You're in for a treat.